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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25255957">A Path Not Taken</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mokulule/pseuds/Mokulule'>Mokulule</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Prequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dooku Feels, Gen, Introspection, Sort of a character study</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:07:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,374</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25255957</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mokulule/pseuds/Mokulule</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dooku has had enough of the neglience of the Jedi Order. Qui-Gon's death was just the last drop.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dooku &amp; Qui-Gon Jinn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>2020 Star Wars Summer Fic Exchange</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Path Not Taken</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/medivhthecorrupted/gifts">medivhthecorrupted</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Medivhthecorrupted as part as the summer fic exchange, I'm sorry I didn't use any of your prompts, but I saw Qui-Gon and Dooku on top of your tier-list and my brain decided it was having feels about them.</p><p>I hope you like it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A Path Not Taken</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dooku exited the taxi and stepped out onto the finely paved platform. He straightened his back and looked up at the towering jedi temple with its long staircase. There was something to be said about that staircase, about how it made the Jedi so distant from the people. If you arrived at the temple like this, like a civilian this was what you saw, the long staircase up the towering ziggurat. He felt a pang in his chest, but he had chosen to arrive this way instead of just entering via the hangar. He might as well get used to this view, though he had no intention of going back in the near future.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Starting his trek up the stairs, he examined his arguments once more. Second guessing was not something he usually did, but this was a monumental decision, it would not do to taken it unwisely - and most importantly that it was not a decision taken in affect.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Qui-Gon…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No matter how many times he turned it around in his head, Qui-Gon was the last straw. They had been told there was a Sith, Dooku had read the transcripts, and yet they hadn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>believed</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Foolishly they had sent Qui-Gon and his padawan alone, despite a known enemy… He purposefully relaxed his jaw. Qui-Gon might have been the last straw but it had certainly not been the first. Dooku had warned the Jedi Council. Reform was needed. They had been stagnating for centuries becoming more and more intertwined with the Chancellor’s office. Their numbers dwindling, unable to deal effectively with the crime syndicates and now this, now the Sith were making a move. There was no way it was all a coincidence.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His knees were aching when he reached the top of the stairs. He wasn’t exactly a youngling anymore. To think it came down to him, a man past his prime to do what the Jedi Council refused to see was necessary. They would rather stick their heads in the sand. The Force was clouded. This was no longer the time for meditation but the time for action.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He stopped when he passed the entrance. He turned his head up to properly see the great hall taking in the statues of the ancient Jedi guarding the entrance and the towering columns. For more than half a century, this sight had meant home. But coupled to the sight was the very feeling of home and there was a distinct something missing from the feeling of the place.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He moved further into the temple, nodding curtly at the respectful greetings of “Master Dooku” from other Jedi.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The archives were coming up on his left, he took a right turn, deviating from the straight path. He didn’t want to risk facing Jocasta. His old friend, what might she think of his decision? What might she think of his bust joining the other lost Jedi in the library, a reminder of the ones who left. He would be the first new bust in centuries. He did not wish to see her. His path was set.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His small detour took him past the training halls. He could help but glance inside them. Thinking of the many hours he’d spent in them, like now with Master and Padawans and the occasional youngling class practicing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You can’t say Ataru is inferior, you’ve told me yourself you’ve never beaten Master Yoda in battle.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“That, my young Padawan, is because the Ataru form is more suited to him. If he did not use an athletic form he would never be able to hit anything but people’s shins, but you - judging by how you’re growing - will be a very large and very easy to hit target when flipping uselessly through the air. Now Makashi, go again.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dooku clenched hands into fists and breathed slowly through his nose. Qui-Gon had never listened. Dooku had known that foolish lightsaber form would get him killed someday. It hadn’t suited him, and it had suited him even less when he aged, when he slowed down. Yet no matter how hard Dooku had made him practice the other forms, he always had to go his own way - and preferably the opposite of his teacher if at all possible.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He caught sight of himself in one of the many viewports and took a deep breath, smoothing his features. But still a headache was building in place of his former frown. He moved on but movement in the corner of his eyes had him drawn to a specific training salle. He froze in front of the viewport before his mind had even caught up to what he was seeing. It was Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon’s padawan. Dooku had not seen the boy for years, had never really been involved, Qui-Gon had not introduced them. It had not been Dooku’s place to intrude. The boy had been there, he had killed the sith, Dooku had heard. He hadn’t really believed it until now, but there was a deep sorrow in the air and a hidden hardness that only came from killing. It was so wrong on a boy whose padawan haircut was still apparent, the braid obviously recently cut.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The child he was instructing was not much younger than himself. Blonde hair was recently shorn into the traditional padawan haircut, one could almost mistake the boy for one of them. Dooku had read about the boy in the transcripts. Working as a shadow, not much was hidden to him. Too old for training, Qui-Gon had nonetheless insisted the boy was the chosen one.  Had even brought the boy with them to Naboo, what had he been thinking. And there were his thoughts again, back to Naboo.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He forced his thoughts back on the present. The task Obi-Wan had put upon himself was insurmountable for one to carry alone. Obi-Wan had only barely become a knight himself and now he was training the Chosen One, it seemed now the council believed Qui-Gon, Dooku thought, lips thinning in annoyance. Obi-Wan had achieved knighthood in trial by combat, defeating the Sith Apprentice, he was likely a good duelist. In fact Dooku was sure of it. It was obvious in the sure way he instructed the younger boy. But did he have the rest of what it took? The pressure was huge.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dooku drummed his fingers against his thighs. Why was he even standing here observing them. Why did he have such a hard time moving on, he had an appointment to keep with the council. His hand reflexively fell to his lightsaber, it had been his for countless years.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The lightsaber is your life. Take care of it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Yes, Master.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The one lesson Qui-Gon never argued with. Obi-Wan had killed the Sith with Qui-Gon’s lightsaber… Dooku took a step forward, then stopped. There was a strange forward tug in his chest, towards the master and padawan duo. But what did he even have to offer? Obi-Wan didn’t even know him, and it was clear to him that whatever he had tried to teach had failed miserably or Qui-Gon would not be dead today. If only he had listened. Had he been too hard? Should he have been harder?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Despite his misgivings he couldn’t stop watching them. Master and Padawan. There was a potential path here. He felt it in his bones, in his soul. He yearned to take it, this path of hope, of could be’s and longing. But it was not for him. His line was ended, long before this final severing, back when Qui-Gon never spoke to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He closed his eyes and turned around, his long cloak swayed behind him. This way, the Jedi way, was no longer for him. He’d made a decision. Things had to be done. The Jedi were stagnant, they strangled themselves in their righteousness and didn’t see the darkness brewing. Maybe the shock of Dooku resigning would finally spark some change. It was so rare Jedi actually left the order, maybe this shock would be enough. But probably it wouldn’t.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dooky would not let himself be held back anymore. He was a shadow, threading the line between light and darkness was what he did and he would find the Sith Master.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>For Qui-Gon.</span>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
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